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Both Sides of the Camera
Dive International (Feb/March 1997)
Interviewing underwater film maker Mike deGruy in the lounge of a plush hotel in Bristol, when the entire world of natural history film
making has descended on town for the Wildscreen film festival, is rather like trying to hold a conversation with a playgroup leader in a
room full of children.
"This is how films are made," he grins apologetically after the third in a long series of interruptions. But it's an opportunity he can't let slip,
for his friend is also a fellow cameraman, and he's eager to enlist him for his latest venture, a film for National Geographic on the subject of
kelp.
This marine plant, which stretches like a lush submarine rainforest along much of California's coastline, has long held a deep fascination
for him. "I don't think I've ever seen anything so spectacular," he enthuses. "It grows up from the bottom to a hundred feet or more with
another fifty trailing the surface, making a beautiful golden canopy. It has a wonderful three-dimensional character and is home to around
two hundred different types of creature from sea otters to horn sharks to a tiny species of octopus, one of the smallest in the world."
A Wildscreen Panda award is the natural history equivalent of a Hollywood Oscar, and this year deGruy's documentary on cephalopods,
"Incredible Suckers", won the prize for Underwater Innovation. It's the latest in a long line of prestigious awards for this 46-year-old
American, whose numerous film credits, both in front and behind the camera, include Life in the Freezer, the Trials of Life, Sea Trek and
Sharks on their Best Behaviour - the latter written, filmed, produced, directed, and presented by himself.
Yet when he talks of his work, not a hint of self impportance creeps through. Whatdoes come over is a passionate interest in marine
biology, coupled with a deep respect for the creatures he films and a great sense of fun.
Raised in Mobile, Alabama, on the Gulf of Mexico, deGruy spent most of his childhood in and around the ocean. It was when he was 13
that he spotted a regulator in a pawn shop, took it to the local YMCA and learned how to use it. This was the beginning of a deep love of
diving that has stayed with him ever since, taking him to some of the world's most remote and spectacular locations and to the top of his
chosen career ...
© Alison Thomas
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